The Friendship of a Million Years
by KhemRocks
Summary: SPOILERS! Spotlights on the friendship between a prince, a magician and a spellcaster in training. Second story now up!
1. Ficlet 1: A Different Kind of Hug

**The Friendship of a Million Years**

**Summary: **SPOILERS!! Spotlights on the developing friendship between a prince, a magician and a spellcaster in training. First story: based on episode 213, just before Mana and the Pharaoh catch up to the other priests.

**Disclaimer: **If I did own these characters, I'd probably be getting paid a lot more than I am now.

It was just as Bakura's turtle-like scaled monster exploded under her Ka's magic that she heard his cry and saw him running towards her, his two accompanying spirits rising above him, and in what seemed like just a heartbeat had raced to meet him and flung her arms around him.

It was not her normal hug, but then the emotions behind it were different: rather than a relieved hug because she hadn't seen him for an entire day, now it was because just moments before she's thought she would never see him _ever again_, and she clung to him, feeling his muscles heave and the sweat run down his back from the strain of worry and running, the softness of his schenti and cloak, the sound of his harsh breathing in her ear, even the _smell_ of him.

It was almost hard to believe that just moments before they had all been in an underground shrine and he, thinking all hope was lost, had offered himself as a sacrifice to Bakura's evil spirits: how she and the others had watched, horrified, uncomprehending, as he had walked towards the thief, while they were still recovering, unable to do as they all wanted and get to their feet and grab him, to save him. She barely registered the other's cries, remembering the scream that been torn from her throat as the ghosts had entered him, as he hunched over, eyes wide, shaking, as she tried to force her exhausted, aching to muscles to _move_, dammit, to stop him from dying and leaving her for good, her closest friend, just as she had lost her beloved teacher. She had trained so hard, developing her own Ka-beast she that she could fight, so that she could start protecting him for once as she had promised, and she had, down in that dark, underground cavern, but then there was simply a greater threat to endanger him, where once again she could not pull him back to safety.

Now, as she embraced him, she didn't care that Master Mahaad and Hassan were watching, or that they were in a dangerous situation and needed to find the others: for now she was just relieved to have him in her arms for a few moments, as they had so often before as they grew up together, as if this was just another day before their world had turned upside down, before all this danger and fighting and sheer _worry_ had begun, when all she had to think about was her dream of becoming an elite spellcaster, walking happily under the burning sun with her two best friends by her side.


	2. Ficlet 2: A Frog Too Far

**A Frog Too Far**

**Summary**: Ficlet two: A bungled spell gives a young magician a chance to comfort an old friend. Mana and Atem, friendship.

The palace was largely quiet, and the growing darkness of the evening found a young magician-in-training crouched beside one of the many ornamental pools, staff by her side. Earlier, upon making her spellbook materialise out of thin air to drop into her hands (secretly, Mana was thrilled whenever she did this: it was one of the few spells that she performed effortlessly, almost without thinking, and although it was one of the simplest grade of spells, the fact that it appeared with the suddenness and grace of a properly cast spell was always a little boost, a little burst of confidence whenever she started her practice), she had decided to concentrate on a spell which changed the colour of living things. She had recently finally mastered the spell before it, to change the colour of inanimate objects, but living things were of course more complicated, having an energy of their own, and so focusing on animals were the next step up. While Mana had enjoyed changing various things in the room to colours of her own choosing (she had particularly liked her newly violently purple vase and luridly green papyrus), she couldn't help but feel annoyed at having to focus her energy on a spell such as this when she was so eager to develop her _ka _and perform the kind of attack and defence magic as her master, but as her old friend and teacher was always drilling into her and had reminded her in class just yesterday, "You have to learn in _stages_, Mana, to truly _understand_ and _respect_ the magic in order to become more powerful. Now stop daydreaming and copy this down!" This explained why she was now sat before the pool, in sight of a large frog. Frogs were an obvious choice: if you looked in the right places they could be as numerous as the hieroglyph they represented. Mana had sighed: although deep down she understood, it could still be boring taking so long. Half of the reason she was here, practicing in the semi-dark instead of enjoying her free time after class, was so that she could advance further and impress Master Mahaad: that and the fact that both he and the Prince (oops, she corrected herself mentally, the Pharaoh) were busy with their own work. Besides, now that she thought about it, she quite liked the idea of having her own coloured frog: if she could keep the spell on she would always know which one it was, and it would become a sort of pet, like her falcon Anzu.

Around her, the surroundings remained calm and peaceful, the only sound the rustling, occasional soft footsteps and sound of water being poured as the gardeners tended the many flowers and plants, and the occasional couple strolled in the moonlight. Most of the residents and officials of the palace of Khemet, including the young Pharaoh himself, had already returned to their rooms after the evenings feast, leaving Mana peace as she focused on her spells.

However, this was soon broken, as Mana let out an "argh!" of frustration. She had just finished trying her spell again, but had thrown down the old tome she had been holding in one hand as she had found that the frog she had been brandishing her staff at remained fat, motionless, wet, but still stubbornly green. With a sigh of defeat, Mana dropped to her knees to gather up her book, checking to see if any of the old pages had comes loose: Master Mahaad would certainly scold her of she had damaged it. She was distracted d from her scrambling when she heard an odd noise: when she looked up, she was surprised to notice that the frog had indeed changed, though not in the colour as she had wanted: it was swelling up, as if it had breathed in too much and didn't know how to exhale.

Mana groaned: swelling up seemed to be the default reaction to things, particularly animals, when she bungled a spell.

Then she paused: instead of deflating (or, amusingly, whizzing around the room like a popped balloon, as sometimes happened too) the frog had remained swelled up, roughly twice its natural size.

Mana paused: the she grinned with a sudden idea, thinking to make the best of it, and flipped through the pages of her spellbook and set to practicing again: this time, with an Enlargement Charm.

*************

Half an hour later, she stopped, giggling: the frog was now enormous: standing, it would have come up to roughly her knee.

The frog, apparently now deciding that it had had enough of sitting relatively still in the dry, suddenly took one huge leap. It was clear that it had meant to land on one of the large lily pads, but its new unfamiliar size meant that its long legs propelled it far further: it flew right over it, and might have landed on the next further one had its greater weight not meant that its lower half effectively squashed it, landing the frog deep into the water of the pool itself with a splash so big that droplets of water soaked the knees of Mana's kilt, though she barely noticed: she was laughing so hard she was surprised she hadn't startled one of the gardeners, as far away as they were.

Just when she was beginning to calm down from laughing and start to look up a spell to put the frog back to normal, Mana paused: it had just occurred to her that someone she knew needed a laugh like the one she had just had: her oldest and closest friend, the young Pharaoh of Khemet himself. He had been working so hard, and was really still grieving the loss of his beloved father. "Well, I'll just have to cheer him up then!" she decided cheerfully. Standing up and banishing her spellbook - another boost to add to her improving mood - she walked around the pool, leaning over and scooping up the now giant green amphibian, clutching it to her chest, so happy at her new idea that she barely noticed its cold weight or the water soaking into the linen of her dress.

*************

The walk to the Pharaoh's private quarters was proving quick but quite awkward: Mana had found it increasingly difficult to both hold the frog tightly enough so that she wouldn't drop it or allow it to leap away (she allowed herself a grin at the thought of the guards faces had they seen it leaping towards them), and hold her staff at the same time.

Suddenly, she paused: she could hear the increasingly loud sound of footsteps and the murmur of voices: from further up the hallway, pair of guards, heading towards her! Quickly deciding that she didn't want to explain her predicament to the guards, who might even decided to confiscate, or worse, harm, the giant frog rather than let it reach their god-king, Mana quickly ducked down into shadowy recess to the side of the hallway, formed by one of the soaring pillars of stone and a large vase. Huddled up, she held her breath and listened in relief as the men passed by her hiding place, vivid imagination wondering what they would have made of her, Mahaad's apprentice and the Pharaoh's childhood friend, wedged into a corner, huddled up with an enormous wet frog clutched between her knees and chest, praying that it wouldn't croak or make a sudden bid for freedom.

After waiting a few more torturous moments to make sure the coast was clear, Mana eased herself out of her hiding place and continued on, readjusting her grip around the frog's scaly, slightly slimy middle.

Upon finally reaching the doors to the Pharaoh's opulent chambers, Mana cursed to herself: of course there would be another pair of guards stood right outside to make she people couldn't just wander in and presumably assassinate the Pharaoh of Khemet. Irritably deciding that the obviously wouldn't be leaving anytime soon and so it wasn't worth the hassle to hide and wait it out again, Mana extracted her staff from under her crossed arm with difficulty, levelled it at the guards, and, ignoring the scolding voice of her conscience in her head (it sounded suspiciously like Master Mahaad), cast her infamous Freezing Spell on the unwitting men.

Mood further buoyed by this triumph, Mana cheerfully knocked on the doors and called for Atem.

*************

It took a few long moments - Mana was just beginning to worry that someone would walk down the hall and catch her outside the god-kings private quarters with two frozen armed guards - but the door finally opened and Mana was met by sight of her friend's pair of large, beautiful, but tired violet eyes, which brightened slightly upon finding and recognising her own.

"Mana," his deep voice greeted, "I wasn't expecting you." Blushing and feeling inexplicably flustered at his presence, Mana could still see the hidden sadness in his eyes, and it reminded her of why she was there.

"Yes! I brought you"- suddenly overwhelmed, and with her usual exuberance, she thrust the giant frog at his chest - "this!"

Stunned, hands grasping the frog in a necessary but thoughtless gesture as apparently effortless as when he held onto her when she surprised him with one of her flying hugs after a long day apart, Atem held the frog up and stared at its huge head, apparently paralysed in understandable shock.

The moments which then passed felt like an eternity to Mana, transfixed by the bizarre scene of the Pharaoh, in all of his royal finery, holding an enormous frog, hands just grasping its cold, wet middle, its kinked but still long legs almost reaching down as far as Atem's own knees.

"I'm sorry!" Mana started to babble, feeling suddenly embarrassed presenting with her friend with such a monster when he was clearly in need of rest, "I just though it would cheer you up -."

Then, the unexpected: the frog, apparently fed up with its ordeal of being slightly squashed and carted around by a hyperactive mage-in-training and now held parallel to another human's face, suddenly let out a loud croak, now deafening due to its new size.

Mana let out a slightly hysterical giggle, her tension broken by the loud noise, the Pharaoh's normally sombre face at such a new shock - he'd even leant his head back slightly as if to get further away from it when the noise happened - and the simple fact that a large green monster had basically burped in the god-king of all Egypt's face.

Mana finally broke, and began to laugh, almost bent over with the force of it. Then, she paused, as the Pharaoh's violet eyes lightened, a warm smile breaking across his face, cheered out of his mood by the bizarre turn of events and the sight of his ever-cheerful friend.

"Thank you." he said warmly, deep voice rich as he joined in her laughter with his own chuckles.

"Now, he said, smiling at her, "let's see about these guards, shall we?"

And Mana smiled back, thinking that despite the chaos of getting there, that it was worth the effort to see him smile and laugh, to know that she had cheered him up in her own way.

**End**


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